The tourism spectacle of fire making at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, Victoria, Australia – a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the emergence of traditional Aboriginal fire making practices as a tourism spectacle at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near Healesville, Victoria, Australia, in the late nineteenth century. Coranderrk was an important site where domestic and international tourism intersected with efforts of the state to Europeanise and Christianise its Aboriginal residents. It highlights the agency of Aboriginal people in this emergence. Through a survey of the myriad uses of fire in Aboriginal society, it contrasts Aboriginal methods of making fire with European methods as a way of contextualising the tourist interest in fire making demonstrations. Fire making was the perfect foil for tourism – it easily incorporated aspects of performance – such as the build, the show, the closer, and the hat. The skill of fire making was a demonstration of ‘Aboriginality’, and its appropriation by tourism was a means by which a traditional craft was maintained and sustained.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous tourism
• fire making
• Coranderrk Aboriginal Station
• tourism performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Professor Ian D. Clark is a Professor of Tourism in the Federation Business School at Federation University Australia. He has a PhD in Aboriginal historical geography from Monash University, and has been researching Aboriginal history since 1982. His areas of research interest include Aboriginal history, the history of tourism, and place names.

Sarah McMaster is a historian who is currently researching the fire practices of Aboriginal people in Victoria. With a background in anthropology and environmental planning, she is interested in the relationships humans develop with their surroundings. She is a doctoral candidate in the School of Arts at Federation University Australia.

Dr. Phillip Roberts is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Arts at Federation University Australia. He has a MA in Archaeology and a PhD in Biological Anthropology, with a background in the mining and construction industries. He is a multidisciplinary researcher with research interests including Aboriginal socio-economic systems and resource usage.

Associate Professor Fred Cahir is an Associate Professor of Aboriginal Studies in the School of Arts at Federation University Australia. His PhD focused on local Victorian Aboriginal history. His research interests include Victorian Aboriginal history; frontier history; Aboriginal heritage tourism history; Aboriginal biocultural knowledge; and place names.

Associate Professor Wendy Wright is a biologist with a strong interest in conservation and biodiversity. She is based in the School of Health and Life Sciences at Federation University Australia. She is particularly interested in traditional understandings of ecological systems; and the ways in which human societies influence ecosystem functions.

Notes

1 Note to readers: please note that images of deceased Indigenous people are contained within this paper. Documents written in the past may use words and descriptions when referring to Indigenous people, which are considered inappropriate today.